Collaborative Video Solutions set to Increase Productivity and Transform Dubai's Government and City Services, Education, Healthcare and Hospitality sectors

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – September 30, 2014 –Dubai’s Smart City vision is being given another boost thanks to Cisco announcing UAE availability of a wide portfolio of new smart video collaboration solutions, in the run-up to GITEX Technology Week 2014. The ability to deliver reliable high-definition video from any location or device will be central to the Dubai Smart City experience, given rise of the Internet of Everything (IoE), which will see millions of sensors integrated into everyday objects connected to citywide Wi-Fi networks.

Today, collaborative video technology is making it easier to connect and collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers from any location and reliable, high-quality, interoperable video—as opposed to video that’s webcam-based, unreliable or incapable of scaling—will play a significant role in the collaboration mix. Encouragingly, the Middle East is ideally placed to tap into this new era of visual empowerment, given the region’s projected rise in the number of smart, mobile devices that will support high-quality video. By 2018 the Middle East and Africa, region’s business IP video traffic is set to reach nearly 65 percent of total IP traffic, and business Internet video traffic 67 percent of total Internet video traffic, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2013–2018.

“Video collaboration is one of the vital elements that will enable Dubai Smart City to realize its vision in becoming of the smartest and most competitive cities in the world – in the build-up to World Expo 2020 and beyond,” said Rabih Dabboussi, Managing Director for Cisco in the UAE. “Whichever way you look at it, the sheer scope of video technology and its current application potential is breathtaking, particularly when it comes to the collaborative benefits it can deliver in fields like education, healthcare, hospitality and government services,” he added.

New Cisco Collaborative Video Solutions for Every Market Sector now available in the UAE:
Cisco unveiled a number of solutions which include excellent choices for a variety of shared working environments including nurse stations, retail banking, customer care centers and any other location where a single desk is shared amongst several employees:

In its second generation, the Cisco TelePresence® MX200 is optimal for smaller rooms, is value-priced to scale, is incredibly easy to install, and offers premium HD resolution out of the box.

The Cisco TelePresence MX700 and Cisco TelePresence MX800 represent the performance line and are ideal for medium- to large-sized rooms. These integrated systems come equipped with premium HD resolution and support H.265, which will give users incredible quality at half the regularly-needed bandwidth.

Costing less than the price of a PC, The Cisco TelePresenceSX10 Quick Set builds upon elements many companies already have in smaller meeting spaces—flat panel displays—to create incredible video meeting spaces. Sure to be popular with SMBs, this system turns any standard flat panel display into an HD video collaboration system in 10 minutes or less. By making such a high-quality experience available at such an attractive price point, Cisco aims to make video the de facto collaboration tool for every conference room.

As anyone who has endured a video call via webcam will tell you, a video session is only as good as the camera technology behind it. Two new offerings in this category, both of which work with many of the solutions include The Precision 60 offering the industry’s best image quality (1080p60), is highly adaptable to varying light conditions, and has a large zoom range, ensuring that the entire view is captured and The SpeakerTrack 60 giving everyone the best seat at the table; based on the Precision 60, it is a unique dual camera system that intelligently finds the active speaker in larger meeting rooms and quickly zooms in to show his or her image.

Not every room is built alike and not every customer has the same needs. The Cisco TelePresence SX80 is an ideal solution for integrators looking to equip large, unique spaces with video.

Also now available in the UAE are two new game-changing devices in its DX Series - DX70 and DX80. Since Cisco believes the future of collaboration is video-driven, these devices are optimized for video communications. While not intended as full PC replacements, these new devices can easily become the de facto choice for highly collaborative workers as they are priced to scale to every desk and provide intuitive touchscreen access to email, IM, voice, video, or web conferencing.

Video Collaboration Bringing Improved Education in a Smart Dubai.
Video collaboration tools are already playing a noticeable starring role in shaping the classroom of the future. Students watching video lectures from around the world, before collaborating in the classroom on multimedia projects and geographical barriers are being broken down as students connect with lecturers as well as other students from different countries and locations across the globe and are increasingly able to collaborate and share learning experiences utilizing real-time video technology. Enabled by collaborative technologies that allow individuals to create, adapt and share content and best practices, in the future, collaborative video technology solutions will help transform the learning environment throughout the ME region by providing a means to bring education to even the most remote locations.

Enhancing Cost, Access, and the Quality of Healthcare in a Smart Dubai
Video solutions are increasingly also enabling healthcare professionals to collaborate more easily, regardless of location, thereby improving both the timeliness and the quality of care delivered. Subsequently, healthcare institutions and providers are utilizing care-at-a distance technology to connect patients in the Middle East with physicians or specialists in the US or the Far East, for example, for vital healthcare consultations. Government Services Offering a New Perspective for a Smart Dubai
As sensors are integrated in virtually every object connected to citywide Wi-Fi networks, Smart Cities will have necessarily have video at their very core. This will enable activities like emergency personnel sending live reports of a fire to determine potential hazards, or police watching CCTV footage of a potential suspect. For the citizens of Dubai, this means being able to leverage mobile apps to show government agencies what problems need to be immediately fixed, from a pothole to a building in danger of collapse or water main break.

Video Collaboration for Hospitality Services in a Smart Dubai
In hospitality, in addition to travel savings, HD video is being used for holding face-to-face meetings on a global scale – removing the distance barrier and helping foster relations with remote properties. The guest room of the future will see the use of video conferencing for direct, visual communication with the front desk or a concierge. A relatively new implementation of video conferencing is the video conferencing-enabled customer service kiosk. This “video concierge” application provides guests with information through face-to face, interactive communications with remote personnel. Typically integrated into a call center application, these kiosks enable remote experts to provide local services to hotel guests.

“At GITEX Technology Week 2014, we will demonstrate how our video collaboration solutions can support Dubai’s smart transformation. Such intelligent and innovative use of collaborative video technology will increase productivity, reduce overall costs and ultimately help drive transformation across both the private and public sectors and subsequently, individual lives. The future of video technology in a Smart Dubai region is networked - using the full power of video and mobility, citizens will be able to collaborate, create and share knowledge as well as benefit from new experiences,” concluded Dabboussi.

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